The Facebook-owned chat app on Thursday announced it has started rolling out two-step verification to its 1.2 billion users across iPhone, Android, and Windows. Two-step verification is an optional but recommended feature, which makes your account more secure.

There’s a growing number of complaints on the Apple Support Communities forum from iPhone 7 owners who have noticed the black finish is chipping away from their handsets. Both the smaller and larger models are affected, but it seems to be more common with the 7 Plus.

Yes, Chrome OS -- while significantly evolved over the past few years -- is still essentially the Chrome web browser with a laptop wrapped around it. But, Samsung and Google are using this new model, and its sister system, the Chromebook Plus, to showcase an important new Chrome OS feature coming to all new 2017 Chromebooks, as well as a handful of older models. These new systems are compatible with the Google Play Android app store, allowing you to download, install and run millions of Android apps, much as they would on any Android phone or tablet (with a few exceptions).

A remotely-controlled robot sent to inspect and clean a damaged reactor at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant had to be pulled early when its onboard camera went dark, the result of excess radiation. The abbreviated mission suggests that radiation levels inside the reactor are even higher than was reported last week—and that robots are going to have a hell of a time cleaning this mess up.

The hardware works, but the Chromebook Pro’s software doesn’t. Google says everything will be fine before the device formally launches in April, and I have no reason to believe that’s not true. But from what I’ve seen so far, this hyper-versatile software trails way behind the hardware. Evidently combining Android and Chrome OS wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Some apps don’t recognize the keyboard and trackpad; others seem unable to handle a touchscreen. Some apps steadfastly refuse to connect to the internet. Most crash constantly, when they even open at all. Games beyond Solitaire-level complexity won’t run at all, not even on this more powerful model. Three times so far, the Chromebook Pro has crashed so spectacularly that I got a dozen error messages and the whole machine shut down. The whole point of a Chromebook is that things like that never happen.

Once the device is added, you’ll be able to control it with voice commands from Google Assistant on your Pixel. If you have a Google Home, the commands should work there, too. However, it’s unclear if you can control them from other Assistant-enabled devices, since the assistant is notoriously fragmented. Still, this is a step in the right direction.

As reports about the upcoming iPhone continue to heat up , the latest one backs up previous speculation that Apple could finally be moving forward with introducing iris scanning technology to its flagship handsets so you can unlock your phone with your eyes.

Kushner, who is among Trump’s most trusted advisers, has been incensed by reports that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has ripped the White House over its implementation of Trump’s executive order restricting travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries, could want a job in the White House as part of a "second wave" of staffers that will replace initial hires. While Christie hasn't said he wants a job, the rumor has been fanned by his allies. Kushner has long had tensions with Christie and played a key role in blocking him from getting a senior job in the administration.

Senator Thune was also critical of the FCC’s regulatory abilities during a speech at State of the Net, saying the commission has “the ability to overregulate the digital world” and that November’s election proves consumers are tired of it. That’s almost certainly a poor conclusion to jump to — Trump lost the popular vote by a large margin, and the 2014 net neutrality proceedings revealed strong public support for keeping the internet open — but Thune is using Republicans’ position of power to advocate for change nonetheless. “One way for us to address this concern in the digital space is to both modernize how the FCC operates and to reform what the FCC is allowed to do,” he said.

PowerShell was developed 10 years ago by Microsoft to expand the power of its command line interface (CLI) by coupling it with a management framework that is used to manage local and remote Windows and Linux systems. By making use of the Component Object Model (COM), Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), and Common Information Model (CIM) interface standards, PowerShell allows for managed elements of computing objects to be administered independent of manufacturer or provider.

What is your advice for mass production of wearables? If you have any experience with this...As you know wearables are much more than just a PCB in a box, it can include fabrics and so on. In particular I am working on a pair of gloves that you can use to control programs, Iron-Man style

The new Chromebook Pro is the convertible laptop that's supposed to be the first true manifestation of that dream. It's a $549, Intel-based device coming out in April. And maybe by then, it will be the dream made real. But because its software is still in beta right now, it's not a dream at all. It's the other thing. It's a nightmare.

"I regard it as a big idea like the smartphone. The smartphone is for everyone. We don't have to think the iPhone is about a certain demographic, or country or vertical market; it's for everyone. I think AR is that big. It's huge. I get excited because of the things that could be done that could improve a lot of lives and be entertaining."

Ford may be one of the largest American companies, but it does not have pockets as deep as Apple and Google. That makes this $1 billion investment a significant push to own the expertise of some of the robotics world’s brightest and most experienced self-driving experts. It’s in line with Ford’s recent strategy, which has seen the American car company pour money into autonomous hardware and software. Last year, Ford joined with Chinese search giant Baidu to invest $150 million in Velodyne , the makers of leading LIDAR sensors, to make the essential hardware cheaper to produce.

Cancel all your plans immediately: tonight, stargazers will be able to view a penumbral lunar eclipse, a stunning full moon, and a comet flyby. It’ll make for a fantastic Friday night, and it’s totally free!

If Xiaomi does indeed start making its own processor, there could be several benefits for the company and its customers. It will likely be cheaper to make smartphones with the company's own chips, instead of buying them from Qualcomm or other third-party suppliers. That would allow Xiaomi to sell their devices at even more competitive prices than before.

A password may soon be required to enter the country — the applicant’s Facebook password, that is. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly suggested the measure to the House Homeland Security Committee today during talks around Trump’s embattled executive order on immigration.

It remains to be seen if Pai’s first steps, like revoking LifeLine authorizations or rescinding the E-rate report, indicate bigger plans to gut those programs. It also remains to be seen whether the the digital empowerment agenda represents the bones of a plan that will eventually incorporate affordability and digital equity, or a cover for tax giveaways to big telecoms that don’t improve access or affordability. The plan doesn’t even address issues of affordability, either through improving competition or anything else. Pai has made digital divide rhetoric central to his leadership, but until he backs that up with actions that bring the internet to those who have been left behind, don’t give him credit for his sweet talk.

Some of the work habits we fall into intuitively aren't so intuitive—especially the ones entrepreneurs rely on the most, when there isn't a boss figure leering over your shoulder. You need to see those behaviors modeled as a kid in order to do them unthinkingly as an adult. Says Budd, "I show up early, I work hard, I don't call in sick when I'm not sick, and I have respect for my leaders."

Nissan has a Star Wars-themed version of its Rogue SUV that capitalizes on its name’s relation to Star Wars, and Rogue One in particular. The full-size modified vehicle adds exterior ‘engines’ and a custom paint job to create a Rogue that looks like something out of my fever dreams (I own a Rogue and I love Star Wars).

The consultants report said the move to roll out Windows would be part of a larger €18.9m 'architecture and client' project. The four year project would see Munich city council take on two new "Windows experts", who would help develop a "powerful" new Windows client for use by staff, it said.

Now, I pointed out that Google and Apple would likely point out that, if you don’t count their store ads, they are both trying to enable the best content to rise to the top. But for both of those app markets, most developers believe they will never succeed unless they get a curated Featured slot by Google or Apple. Valve, however, won’t feature certain games for everyone. Instead, it wants Steam to naturally show each game to the customer that is most likely to care about it. The company claims it is already doing that. In a blog post about its Discovery 2.0 features, Valve claims that despite having more games than ever on Steam, key metrics like the time people spend playing games and the number of games that make more than $200,000 in their first three months are on the rise.

A new wearable idea was recently introduced to the public by North Carolina State University. The low-cost gadget is designed to measure skin hydration and inform users when they need to drink more water.

Bringing a product to market entails getting hands-on with a bunch of logistics — everything from sourcing the raw material for manufacture, to ultimately distributing your finished items to customers. You can be one of the skilled few who truly understand that process with this intensive

This spring, Greenlight will be replaced with Steam Direct, a program where any developer can publish their games on Steam -- after they pay a submission fee. With Direct, all devs need to do is fill out some paperwork and hand over an as-yet-to-be-determined amount of cash. After talking to several developers and studios, Valve is considering anywhere between $100 and $5,000 per submission.

Ever since Netflix dropped its trailer for the second season of Stranger Things during the Super Bowl, there’s been an influx of details about what to expect, including one interesting detail: Wall-E and Finding Dory director Andrew Stanton will be directing two of the episodes, Entertainment Weekly reports .

Valve is ending the crowdsourced Greenlight submission program, replacing it with a direct sign-up system. Instead of putting a game up for community voting on Greenlight, developers will use a new system called Steam Direct, paying a fee for each title they plan to distribute. “Our goal is to provide developers and publishers with a more direct publishing path,” wrote Valve employee Alden Kroll in a blog post. “After the launch of Steam Greenlight, we realized that it was a useful stepping stone for moving to a more direct distribution system, but it still left us short of that goal.”

One of the things that we find is that people who present themselves in terms of making sure that their face is not covered...can be incredibly critical for creating a story. We know that wearing glasses in a profile photograph — both sunglasses or prescription eyeglasses — decreases the user's chance of being swiped right on by 15 percent, and users wearing a hat decreases that likelihood by 12 percent. That's because our eyes provide people with context to be able to understand how trustworthy we are. We signal trustworthiness through the iris of our eyes.

When you invest your money, it’s easy to get excited and start checking it every day to see how much it’s earning. This isn’t the best idea and it can hurt you in the long run. The best and hardest thing to do with your investments is nothing.

Beats already shipped the Beats Solo3 Wireless over-ear headphones for $300 and Powerbeats3 Wireless sport-influenced pair for $200, but those are both “sequels” to existing products that added the W1 chip for easier pairing with iPhones and iPads. But the BeatsX are a new product codesigned with Apple. They’re estimated to last 8 hours on a charge, with a Fast Fuel feature that gives you 2 more hours of music playback after charging for just 5 minutes.

In the meantime, here's a look at how companies are currently using IoT devices, and what they're doing with the data. Among companies who've already completed their IoT rollout, environmental sensors are, by far, the most popular devices. Regardless of what devices they're using, most companies are collecting data about businesses processes, HVAC, and their own employees. They're then using the data collected to do things like analyze environmental conditions, improve their products, and monitor resource availability. When it comes to securing the data, the majority of businesses are encrypting stored data, although many businesses use multiple security methods.

Still, my years of online dating in the trenches of the New York City singles scene offered up some terrific stories to tell my married friends. There were the five "Johns" I dated at once. (Seriously, I was juggling dates with five guys all named John. I felt like I was in an episode of "Three's Company" or "The Brady Bunch.") There was Frankie Donuts, who claimed to have invented low-fat donuts. (I could tell we weren't compatible from his profile, but I had to hear the low-fat donut story.) And there was the Presbyterian minister who broke my heart after we'd dated for a few months.

Tell me about the actual moment of the hack. I'm trying to picture the scene. It's Saturday and what, you're bored at the desk with a coffee and decide to pull something off? I never meant for it to get this big, to be honest. When it came back that like 158,000 hosts were replying, I was kinda stunned. I didn't think it'd get this much attention either. Yes, it was Saturday and I was sitting, listening to Yung Lean and drinking a coffee with two sugars. I think I was working on a sandbox to brush up my Linux kernel programming skills—thought it'd be interesting as I'd mucked about with user mode stuff for a while and was getting bored of it. Or that night I was working on my LD_PRELOAD kit [a type of rootkit]. It was just a night I was bored to be honest, doing random shit. You signed the name Michael Jensch on some of the printouts, and your Twitter account says you're a 23-year-old researcher in Germany. But you've told others you're a high school student in the UK. Oh, that's my friend. He kinda asked me to do it. And yeah, I'm from the UK. I'm a high school student.

"We will ask new developers to complete a set of digital paperwork, personal or company verification, and tax documents similar to the process of applying for a bank account. Once set up, developers will pay a recoupable application fee for each new title they wish to distribute, which is intended to decrease the noise in the submission pipeline."

That the kiwi bird still exists at all is something of a marvel. Its native New Zealand has no endemic land predators, and so the bird evolved to be flightless. Today, its nests on the forest floor are under constant attack by invasive species—opossums, rats, feral cats and the occasional misbehaving dog .

The series will kick off in April with issue #0, as Captain America leads SHIELD to contain three separate, Hydra-backed events. Secret Empire #1 arrives in May. The series will be written by Nick Spencer and will feature art from Steve McNiven, Andrea Sorrentino, Daniel Acuña, and Leinil Francis Yu. Marvel’s senior VP of publishing Tom Brevoort revealed that the series would be picking up after last year’s dramatic events, and that Captain America would be revealed as a Hydra agent early in the series.

When Snap made the details of their IPO public on Feb 2, it caused a flurry of excitement. Potential investors began snatching up shares in SNAP Interactive Inc, which rose by 164-percent in four days, according to Bloomberg .

Losing to a 12-year-old in Super Smash Bros. can be a real downer, but there are a few ways to prevent that. You can challenge kids who aren't as good, practice and improve on your own, or, if you have a few bucks to spend, get a video game tutor from Japanese company GameLesson .

Lucid’s Air is a 1,000 HP electric dream car, which is still in the early stages of real-world testing, but which already has more than a few EV fans excited. Now, the company is showing off its winter conditions testing, courtesy of a video shot in Minnesota that makes the state far more appealing than any tourism bureau marketing I’ve ever seen.